It Helps to See Your Thoughts in Black and White

House Oversight Committee to post complete hearing videos online
New House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that the committee will post complete videos of every hearing online in hopes of spurring other committees to do the same. "No Congressional Committee has done this before. Going forward, we'll keep sharing high-quality videos of our tough oversight work," Issa said in a video announcement. "Under Speaker John Boehner, transparency through technology will be crucial to shaping a governme...

Is Darrell Issa the new Joe McCarthy?
Michele Bachmann for president. Seriously?! To the victors in the congressional Elections goes the power of Subpoena, as Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has been so eager to remind the Democrats. But as the new Congress is seated, Issa and his GOP colleagues should note the difference between investigation and witch-hunt. Too often in our political history, the former has turned into the latter. It was scary, frankly, to hear Issa describe the Executive Branch under President Obama as "one of the ...

A multi-tasking Issa lies and redefines 'corrupt' on CNN
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the newly-minted Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was on CNN earlier today, redefining the word "corrupt" while lying about his past statements about the Obama White House: John King: But you have called them corrupt, sir. You just twice used the word "misused." That's a judgement on your part and you will have Subpoena power, you can have hearings, you can call up the witnesses and we will see what the evidence shows in the weeks and ...

Issa defends calling Obama 'corrupt'
Washington (CNN) - Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), the brand-new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform, defended comments he had previously made that President Obama is "one of the most corrupt presidents of modern times." "I think people misunderstand the meaning of the word corrupt, and obviously, CNN does. 'Corrupt', or 'corrupted' or 'failure', it's no different than a disc drive that's given you some bits that are wrong," Issa said on CNN. Issa continued, "I...

Amy Goodman: Darrell Issa, Step Away From the Corporations
Remember "freedom fries"? That's what the House Republicans, when they were last in the majority, renamed French Fries, after France refused to support the invasion of Iraq. It seems like renaming fries might be just about the extent of food Regulation that some in Congress are willing to support. The new Republican majority threatens a barrage of investigations. California Republican Darrell Issa is the new chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Issa has been tweetin...

Shocker: CNN report on state budget deficits discover bloated governments
Liberals seem to be having a Lieutenant Renault moment here: They're shocked, SHOCKED! that governments at all levels are bloated with people getting paid lots of money and unsustainable benefits to do a bad job: Darrell Issa is speaking up on the issue at least on the national level: Issa: Tough Oversight Starts With Axing Government Waste, Job-Killing Hyper-Regulation Issa & Boehner also announced an Oversight Committee Transparency Project: ...

Investigate Justice Dept.'s efforts against terrorism
Given the Democrats' track record of investigating Republican administrations, they will lack credibility when they Protest Republicans investigating actions by the Obama Administration. Oversight is a primary function of any Congress. The new Republican House majority is expected to conduct several investigations. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has promised to lead six of them, including one that according to Issa's spokesma...

Will He Say He Has No Choice or Will He Use Seigniorage?
The media and much of the blogosphere are framing the coming Debt ceiling decision as one in which the Republican-majority House may refuse to extend the Federal Debt ceiling, thus forcing both a Government shut-down, and also a possible default of the US in paying its Debt obligations to its creditors. Republicans saying they will not vote to extend the ceiling see this as an opportunity to force Spending Cuts out of the Democrats and the Obama Administration. This second round of hostage-takin...

HA! Weaker Pelosis parting shot Deficit reduction has been a high priority
HA! Weaker Pelosi’s parting shot - “Deficit reduction has been a high priority” Nancy Pelosi proves that Botox rots the brain. Pelosi also proves that Liberalism/progressivism is a Mental Disorder. San Fran Nan had her final Press Conference as House Speaker today. And according to Fox Nation, Pelosi had the audacity to say: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.” WHAT THE F? Lets examine the FACTS. Democrats took over C...

Sick 'Em, Darrell
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Newly minted Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Representative Darrell Issa, is wasting no time declaring his intentions to Probe certain actions taken during the reign of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triumvirate. Via the Washington Post: "Issa, who will have power to Subpoena government officials to appear before the committee, said he intended to conduct inquiries into the release ...

Follow the Rule of Law
The 2010 Midterm Elections represent a resounding Referendum on the Obama Administration. Voters turned out to repudiate policies with which they disagreed. At the forefront of voter displeasure were the new administration's massive spending and the ever-burgeoning National Debt. However, many voters also expressed concern that the Obama Administration was taking actions that were at odds with fundamental principles of law. The coming year represents an opportunity for the administration to reve...

The first pre-emptive surrender of 2011!
The Obama Administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare Regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new Health Care law, administration officials said Tuesday. As I’ve noted before, if I am ever captured by the GOP or other Terrorist organization, please find a skilled negotiator to haggle for my release....

Pragmapopulism
Populist, “pragmatic” conservative Bill O’Reilly warns the GOP that trying to Repeal ObamaCare is not what voters want (some of that 2700-page assault on personal liberty is, you see, “good for the folks”) — that instead, what voters want is for the new Congress to focus on The Economy. Thus, per O’Reilly, a push to rollback ObamaCare is “a classic trap,” one that the GOP would do well to avoid. Behold: To which I say, simply, this: fuck yo...

G.O.P. Asks Businesses Which Rules to Rewrite
By Binyamin Appelbaum NYT WASHINGTON — Companies spend millions of dollars each year complaining to Congress about burdensome laws and regulations, pressing their concerns in public campaigns and in private meetings. They rarely wait for invitations. Last month a senior House Republican, Representative Darrell Issa of California, nevertheless dispatched letters to 150 companies, trade groups and research organizations asking them to identify federal regulations that are restraining economic ...

Shark Attack Alert: GOP Takes Over House
Submitted by mark karlin on Wed, 01/05/2011 - 10:01am. Yesterday, BuzzFlash humbly warned the White House about trying to negotiate with a shark. Unlike dolphins, sharks are not known for their intelligence. They are basically lethal eating machines with fins. They have no grand strategy. They don't look toward goals in the future. They just live to prey on other living organisms. That's pretty much what President Obama has to deal with in terms of the GOP. They are now, reportedly, going to tr...

Issa says congress is at fault for TARP misuse
Congress is to blame for misuse of TARP funds the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform said Wednesday. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the new chairman of the Oversight Committee, said in an interview with CNN today that the 111th Congress had misused the nearly $1 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program funds implemented under the Bush Administration. "Well, in the last Congress, we saw that this last Congress and the Congress before, handed out huge amounts o...

Cummings: We'll Stop Any Issa 'Witchhunts' (VIDEO)
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) -- the man Democrats chose to go toe-to-toe with incoming House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) -- is making the rounds on Cable News and showing off the aggressive style that helped him win the spot. Cummings said that he expects to see the tougher version of Issa -- in other words, not the Issa who walked back his harshest statements and said he wanted to work with the administration -- and said his staff is ready for an "avalanche of Subpoenas comin...

NAB, US Telecom get Issa letters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and U.S. Telecom both received letters from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) after the election, officials at those groups confirmed.  House Oversight Chairman Issa sent letters to dozens of industry groups and companies for feedback on government regulations that amount to overkill and need to be tossed. Broadcasting & Cable first reported that NAB received such a letter.  Source: https://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/136221-nab-

New on YouTube: Oversight and government reform
Got some spare time on your hands? Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday that every hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee dating back to 2009 would be made available on YouTube — in broadcast-quality, no less.  In a YouTube video of his own, Issa, the incoming chairman of the Oversight Panel, said the move was a logical step to increase government transparency, a vow House Republicans made in their Pledge to America. “My mission is to shape a government

If Obama Wants to Effectively Counter the Republicans, He Should Remember That You Can't Negotiate With a Shark
There is not a human being who would try to placate a shark, but apparently President Obama still believes that he can reason with the jaws of the GOP. It's particularly naive on the part of the White House, since we've been through this all before whenever the Republicans have controlled a national branch of power in the past few decades. So, it comes as no surprise that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), incoming chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is shouting to the r...

Republican Congressman Seeks Businesses Input on Rewriting Government Regulations
The American Constitution Society takes no position on particular legal or policy initiatives. All expressions of opinion are those of the Guest Bloggers. ACS encourages its members to express their views and make their voices heard in order to further a rigorous discussion of important issues. The soon-to-be chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, is helping stoke a popular right-wing sentiment that the Obama Administration is wildly anti-business. T...

Incoming House Ethics Chairman Taking Aim At Countrywide, Subprime Mortgages And Stimulus Spending
Rep. Darrell Issa is going to be a busy, busy man in the new Congress: Finally seeing the Countrywide Scandal investigated thoroughly will, itself, be a major victory for ethics. The Senate Ethics Committee was quick to exonerate Senators Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd, but Bank of America was never even subpoenaed for reams of documentation they held up to and including recorded phone calls from Senators (including Kent Conrad) negotiating their VIP loans. How could the Senate Ethics Committee have...

Obamas New Regulations on Business Cost $28 Billion
The Obama Administration is regulating everything and anything they can get dream up. Rep. Darryl Issa will be investigating the cost of those regulations on American businesses, and has asked those businesses for input. CNS News reported: As part of a congressional investigation into burdensome regulations, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is asking the business community for help in determining how certain government regulations can hurt job growth. Issa cites the Obama administration’s own

Darrell Issa Doesnt Back Off Obama Administration Criticism On Hannity
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The American edge can be relearned by the success of German ingenuity
If we want to regain our edge America, perhaps we might consider looking at a winner in the world market, Germany. In board rooms around the world, spread sheets indicate Germany is kicking our economic butt. As our Middle Class shrinks along with or floundering educational system, Americans are frustratingly finger-pointing for the reasons. It seems that we can no longer find a visible or viable scapegoat, as our own worst enemy is found looking directly into a mirror. Indeed, we should start t...